Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.
Conference
At the recent Committee of 100 annual conferences, I sat in on a panel discussion. The participants were
Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, Former U.S. Trade Representative under President Clinton,
The Honorable Richard D’Amato, Chairman, The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
&
Prof. Wang Jisi, Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, and Director, Institute for International Strategic Studies, Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.
There is much I would like to share about this discussion but one point stood out and I got to play an intimate part in it. After each participant took a turn talking and responding to questions from the moderator, written questions were accepted from the audience.
Two things surprised me about the questions –
The 1st…my question was taken. I asked in response Mr. D’Amato statements regarding the raising of tariffs and revaluations of the Chinese yuan that he said were necessary to level the playing field. There was a time when the Japanese yen was well over 200 yen to a dollar and it is now less than half that. The reason it was revalued was so that the playing field could be leveled….but the end result was the trade deficit continued to grow and Americans started paying more for Japanese goods. Why, I asked, Mr. D’Amato, does he think China will be any different?
2nd…he did NOT know the answer. He mumbled and rambled on about fairness and equity and another buzz word, but in the end, there was no answer. He did NOT know.
At that point, Ambassador Barshefsky jumped into the fray and gave a very convoluted answer that boiled down to the point, that more study needs to be made.
Hello! Shouldn’t the study be done BEFORE the recommendations are made? If the answer is NOT known shouldn’t the recommendation be held on until it is known?
Tariffs and revaluing the yuan (RMB) are bad ideas in my book. Take the case of Japan.
What do you think?
